Canon City finds; Ash throated Flycatcher & Leucistic YRWA

[Eric Storms]

Had a great day of birding down at Canon City today. We started off by finding the yellow-crown night-heron reported by Brandon Percival at Sell Pond. Highlights along the adjacent riverwalk were a western tanager, orange crowned warbler and what appears to be a partially leucistic yellow rumped warbler. After the riverwalk we went to Brush Hollow Reservoir. We found a pair of ash throated flycatchers on the west side of the lake, tucked into a canyon. Ebird listed them as rare so wanted to pass the info along should somebody want to see them.

I am adding pictures of both for reference.

Eric Storms

Castle Rock

PS - thanks to everyone who had posted updates on the yellow throated vireo!

[Brandon]

I don't really understand the e-bird filters sometimes (most of the time).  Ash-throated Flycatcher is a common breeding species in Fremont County.  I have no idea, why April 28th, would be too early for them to be in that county.  I saw one in Pueblo County on Friday, which they breed here too (and e-bird didn't flag that sighting). 

Interestingly, Kara Carragher and I also saw a partially leucistic Yellow-rumped Warbler, on the eastern part of the Canon City Riverwalk, yesterday.  

Brandon Percival
Pueblo West, CO  

[Kathy and Jeff Dunning]

Hi Brandon and all - 

eBird filters are generally set up on the 4 eBird "weeks" with beginning dates of 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd, so we're currently in the week beginning 22 April; the next "big" filter jump will occur on 1 May.  A lot of things flagging rare on the 30th of April will cease to do so on the 1st of May.

For rarities, the review team generally utilizes a 1% rule.  Ash-throated Flycatcher (ATFL) is reported on only 0.36% of eBird checklists from Fremont in the last week of April, thus the filter is set to zero.  See:

https://ebird.org/barchart?r=US-CO-043&bmo=1&emo=12&byr=1900&eyr=2019&spp=astfly  

Until today's sightings, there was EXACTLY one Fremont County eBird record of ATFL in the ENTIRE month of April (and this occurred on April 30th).  This is thus the earliest ATFL ever recorded in Fremont County.  Congrats!

Good birding,

Kathy Mihm Dunning

Denver

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[Brandon]

Thanks for explaining.  Probably not enough people looking for Ash-throated Flycatchers earlier in April in Fremont County (or older sightings haven't been entered in e-bird).  Since I've seen them many times in April in Pueblo County, one county to the east of Fremont County, I would think they are around Fremont County regularly in April too.

-- 

Brandon Percival

Pueblo West, CO  

On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 7:58 PM Kathy and Jeff Dunning <mihmd...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Brandon and all - 

eBird filters are generally set up on the 4 eBird "weeks" with beginning dates of 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd, so we're currently in the week beginning 22 April; the next "big" filter jump will occur on 1 May.  A lot of things flagging rare on the 30th of April will cease to do so on the 1st of May.

For rarities, the review team generally utilizes a 1% rule.  Ash-throated Flycatcher (ATFL) is reported on only 0.36% of eBird checklists from Fremont in the last week of April, thus the filter is set to zero.  See:

https://ebird.org/barchart?r=US-CO-043&bmo=1&emo=12&byr=1900&eyr=2019&spp=astfly  

Until today's sightings, there was EXACTLY one Fremont County eBird record of ATFL in the ENTIRE month of April (and this occurred on April 30th).  This is thus the earliest ATFL ever recorded in Fremont County.  Congrats!

Good birding,

Kathy Mihm Dunning

Denver

On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 6:56 PM Brandon <flamm...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't really understand the e-bird filters sometimes (most of the time).  Ash-throated Flycatcher is a common breeding species in Fremont County.  I have no idea, why April 28th, would be too early for them to be in that county.  I saw one in Pueblo County on Friday, which they breed here too (and e-bird didn't flag that sighting). 

Interestingly, Kara Carragher and I also saw a partially leucistic Yellow-rumped Warbler, on the eastern part of the Canon City Riverwalk, yesterday.  

Brandon Percival
Pueblo West, CO  

On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 6:46 PM Eric Storms <ericb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Had a great day of birding down at Canon City today. We started off by finding the yellow-crown night-heron reported by Brandon Percival at Sell Pond. Highlights along the adjacent riverwalk were a western tanager, orange crowned warbler and what appears to be a partially leucistic yellow rumped warbler. After the riverwalk we went to Brush Hollow Reservoir. We found a pair of ash throated flycatchers on the west side of the lake, tucked into a canyon. Ebird listed them as rare so wanted to pass the info along should somebody want to see them.

I am adding pictures of both for reference.

Eric Storms

Castle Rock

PS - thanks to everyone who had posted updates on the yellow throated vireo!

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[Allison Hilf]

Hi all -

For RBA purposes I ignore e-bird flags if it appears to be just an early sighting of a relatively common bird.   

Given it’s migration I’ve also taken the liberty to remove birds prior to the usual 1 week standard if they have not been relocated after several days.

Allison Hilf

Aurora, CO

Sent from my iPhone

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[dasa...@gmail.com]

For whatever it's worth, after several years of living in Ash-throated Flycatcher breeding territory in Fremont County, they usually seem to get back in the first few days of May.  Don't remember ever seeing one in April.  Fascinating discussion!

To add to Eric's great sightings, the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was present at Sell's Pond both around 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM today.  Also, the northeast shore of Brush Hollow Reservoir had 43 Willets (eBird high count for Fremont County, speaking of Fremont County and eBird) and 2 Western Sandpipers.  10 Least Sandpipers were at Blue Heron Ponds.

Dale and Joel Adams

Fremont County